Full Idea
The essentialist view of Newton (due to Roger Cotes) ...prevented fruitful questions from being raised, such as, 'What is the cause of gravity?' or 'Can we deduce Newton's theory from a more general independent theory?'
Gist of Idea
Essentialist views of science prevent further questions from being raised
Source
Karl Popper (Conjectures and Refutations [1963], 3.3)
Book Reference
Popper,Karl: 'Conjectures and Refutations' [RKP 1965], p.106
A Reaction
This is Popper's main (and only) objection to essentialism - that it is committed to ultimate explanations, and smugly terminates science when it thinks it has found them. This does not strike me as a problem with scientific essentialism.
Related Idea
Idea 15705 Essentialism encourages us to think about the world scientifically [Gelman]